Not sure what games you play but generally speaking in a bus you use a laptop not a desktop. If you can make that move it will really simplify things. Every watt you don't burn is a watt you don't need to produce and store as well.

Spend $20 on a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon. PLug your machine in and have a few hours of gaming.

That will tell you exactly how much power it is consuming.

Yeah, I found that device after I posted. I will definitely give that a go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brokedown

Not sure what games you play but generally speaking in a bus you use a laptop not a desktop. If you can make that move it will really simplify things. Every watt you don't burn is a watt you don't need to produce and store as well.

Depending on what results I get from the aforementioned device, I will probably have to go that route.

I'm mainly an Overwatch player, but I also enjoy old school emulated games and maybe I will have to forego Overwatch unless I am hooked up.

+1 on using the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption. I'd use it for a week or so in order to find out your average usage, both in terms of average power consumption and amount of time playing.

Because solar panels don't generate power 24/7 (they only do when it's light out), the best way to size your system is in terms of energy use per day in Watt-hours (abbreviated Wh). So, if you find out your PC runs at 350 W average and you play an average of 3 hours per day, that's 350 W * 3 h = 1,050 Wh of energy that you use each day.

To generate that much power in a day, let's assume you get 4 hours of sunlight each day (it changes a lot with weather and location, but 4 is a decent rough number). So, your solar panels have to generate 1,050 Wh in 4 hours, meaning you need 263 W of solar power (assuming 100% efficiency). This doesn't account for a less-than-perfect day where you need to rely on your battery storage to supply the power.

Then you need to factor in other things that will be consuming power: fridge, A/C, chargers, etc.

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+1 on using the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption. I'd use it for a week or so in order to find out your average usage, both in terms of average power consumption and amount of time playing.

Because solar panels don't generate power 24/7 (they only do when it's light out), the best way to size your system is in terms of energy use per day in Watt-hours (abbreviated Wh). So, if you find out your PC runs at 350 W average and you play an average of 3 hours per day, that's 350 W * 3 h = 1,050 Wh of energy that you use each day.

To generate that much power in a day, let's assume you get 4 hours of sunlight each day (it changes a lot with weather and location, but 4 is a decent rough number). So, your solar panels have to generate 1,050 Wh in 4 hours, meaning you need 263 W of solar power (assuming 100% efficiency). This doesn't account for a less-than-perfect day where you need to rely on your battery storage to supply the power.

Then you need to factor in other things that will be consuming power: fridge, A/C, chargers, etc.

Wow, thank you for the great info.

This is exactly the type of thing that I was having trouble figuring out.

Spend $20 on a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon. PLug your machine in and have a few hours of gaming.

That will tell you exactly how much power it is consuming.

I had heard (and I thought I had heard it here) that the Kill-A-Watt doesn't do all that well when measuring a digital power supply type load. Anybody have experience with this? Using a Kill-A-Watt to measure one computer, or one flat screen TV, or similar?